“Agile makes sick” was the provocative title of one of the sessions I joined at the Agile Cologne open space a few weeks ago. Obviously the session title was meant to provoke. Obviously the person bringing the topic deeply valued agile ways of working in principle. And yet: he had good examples of people who felt overwhelmed, lost and underappreciated in their agile team setup. I kept thinking about this one.
The constant change around us is adding a lot of uncertainty
Somebody brought in the perspective of Azeem Azhar’s thesis (https://www.exponential-book.com/), that the exponential changes new technologies are bringing to our life are outpacing the way we and our institutions (who are rooted in linear rule making) are capable to keep up with.
And this is maybe getting to the heart of why leadership, product leadership or simply being part of an agile team in our rapidly changing, complex and unpredictable world is often making us feel insecure, inadequate, ill prepared and deeply uncomfortable.
The constantly changing world around us simply does not allow us to easily make sense of it, often does not let us experience agency and control over how it affects our lives, and may feel scary, uncomfortable, unpredictable, complex and dangerous all at the same time. We’d all love to have that simple guide book for how to have a happy life, great career, wonderful relationships and ideally no kind of suffering, difficult emotion, embarrassment, shame or discomfort along the way. Except that life does not work that way. It keeps changing, evolving and presenting us opportunities to fail, learn and grow each day.
As humans, we are most happy when we are feeling seen, feeling appreciated and having a sense of autonomy and agency about our life. Yet we live in times where many around us (including ourselves) are feeling stressed, stretched and experience a lack of autonomy and control. Change is constant and everywhere around us: the pandemic with its health challenges, our global climate crisis, the war in Ukraine, the constant displays of racist police violence, changes in our organizational context (restructurings, layoffs, market changes, demand changes, supply changes), the rising cost of living, attacks on human rights, yet another mass shooting AND the constantly evolving new tech space around us. On top of it there are the personal issues we all face at times: breakups or divorces, grief for a loved one, trauma from some emotional of physical abuse, etc… All of these let us experience the world around us as unstable, unpredictable or a source of suffering, thereby constantly interrupting the peaceful, easy, comfortable life we would much rather live.
Agile as a way of working successfully despite uncertainty
And then along comes this new way of working. A style of working made for those kind of complex uncertain circumstances. A way to navigate the world when simply guidebooks and past experience fail to do our new contexts justice. A way of working that answers the uncertainty and unpredictability with experiments, a failure culture and a basic trust that humans are smart, resourceful, creative creatures that will together as a team rise to any challenge and adapt. It asks teams to face all of this change and unpredictability head on, deal with it and somehow make sense of it. Whether we want to admit this or not, this rubs against our longing for stability, explanations, predictability, control, ease and comfort. Our new work life is actually often the exact opposite of comfortable. It works its magic in the middle of uncertainty, complexity and despite the lack of an ability for anyone in the team to have answers ready simply based on past experience. Actually a lot of past experience constantly fails to deliver against new context, new strategy, new client expectations, new technology, the new hybrid and remote ways of working. Work life today asks us to be like a ball swimming on flowing water. Moving with the currents, effortlessly floating, turning, changing direction and dancing on the waves.
What used to help us create structure no longer sufficiently helps
To act like this ball on the water, leading and co-creating well despite all this uncertainty, takes a complete letting go of so many things that promise us structure. Titles don’t help here, your official position in the hierarchy does not, all the effort you put into earning a degree does not help, your past experiences are valuable, but not what helps to solve completely new problems, your unconscious habits often don’t work (as these habits developed to help you navigate life with ease around situations that were well understood, taking your metal load off learning how to navigate them every single time you meet them again). And it asks for a completely different style of joint problem solving and leadership. Our constantly changing world demands of us to be present, to keep learning, to always adjust, to be prepared for change at all times, and to find the opportunities and even joy in constant change. Being present, accepting, vulnerable and trusting, seeking creative tension, treasuring diversity, being curios, being willing to fail and learn fast, being clear on your values and purpose and having honed your co-creation skills are habits helping us there.
It takes a lot of courage and trust to navigate life that way. And it can trigger in us all those stress reaction we unconsciously fall into when facing unknown challenges. I think that latter part is what can create cultures of competition for appreciation, desires for executing control, or lead to experiences of aggression, shame, defensiveness or insecurity. Aspects of culture which definitely don’t lead to us feeling seen, appreciated, valued or in a state of autonomous agency. The opposite of what we may experience as fun or joyful days. Being part of a culture like this for a while without team members having tools to positively influence the systems around them, and being without practices that help us feel better around uncertainty and change can absolutely lead to feeling overwhelmed, burned out and ultimately sick.
This may not be quite as new to anyone in a leadership role who has experience facing the dilemmas of coming up with visions, strategies, directions and goals with teams and contexts that keep changing. What agile and “new work” are changing, is that they are distributing the accountability, agency and responsibility for those things into entire teams of people. With those flat hierarchies also comes a lot more shared leadership burden amongst everyone in the team. And I do think that being left without tools and practices to create an inner sense of calm, direction, joy and trust within oneself, leaders and teams are ill equipped to stay happy in the face of constant change. I don’t think agile makes sick, I think being exposed to constant change and new demands without a toolset to find your inner joy and peace is what makes sick.
Practices for staying happy and resilient despite all the change around us
This is where meditation, your values, your inner leader voice, your life purpose, any mindfulness practice, your yoga practice, your martial arts training, your partner dancing practice, your hiking practice and any other activity you regularly do to help you self-regulate your emotions, build your resilience and your inner sense of happiness become vitally important. In short anything that trains your ability to be present in the moment, to find joy, to be open to the signals you get from what is around you, and capable to act on them with curiosity, fluidity and ease rather than fear, stress, aggression or defensiveness. I know this is asking a lot from us, especially when we constantly feel busy and distracted by life’s demands. Those fifteen minutes of silent meditation, journaling or movement you regularly do in the morning are maybe the best kind of gift you can give to yourself to anchor yourself in this constantly changing world. We all need tools and support around creating those resilience and “dance in the moment” skills that are helping us stay sane, healthy and full of creative energy. You can start by taking a break, simply breathing and observing what is going on in your mind, body and emotions. If you want help uncovering your values, inner leader voice and life purpose, just reach out! They’re an excellent compass in uncertain times.
Photo by Elisa Ventur on Unsplash
I coach, speak, do workshops and blog about #leadership, #product leadership, #innovation, the #importance of creating a culture of belonging and how to succeed with your #hybrid or #remote teams.
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